Back to http://istillblog.wordpress.com/

Sorry guys! I was told this Blogger would nicely integrate with the iStill website, so I wanted to move the Blog from Wordpress.com to Blogspot.com.

And now it turns out that, yes you can integrate, but only read the Blog, not actively participate.

Now, what's the fun in that?

Right, there is no fun in that.

Conclusion: back to the "old" istillblog.wordpress.com:

http://istillblog.wordpress.com/

Sorry for the confusion.

New iStill Website is in the air!

Hi guys & galls,

Very excited to inform you that our website is out.

Please see:

http://www.istill.eu/

For detailed information on our stills, for tutorials, brochures, and more ...

SPP

Hello Thailand! So you guys & girls over there are reading the iStill Blog too now, right? Thanks for joining! And happy ... uh ... distillings!

We are taking orders on SPP now!

Stainless steel SPP:

EUR 24.- per litre (shipping not included)

Copper SPP:

EUR 34.- per litre (shipping not included)

Ordering info:

iStillMessage@gmail.com

About shipping and transportation

I love it, how this Blog picks up speed!

We now have visitors from Denmark. A warm welcome to you as well! I have visited your country many times. Some of my best friends live over there. Aquavit is a drink I praise and love.  If there is anyone out there willing to share a recipe ... I would be delighted!

Okay, news, news, more news. News on shipment costs.

The prices for shipping the iStill 50 and iStill 50 Base are apprised!

Western Europe:

Shipping costs: EUR 100.-

Duration: 5 work days

Eastern Europe and Russia:

Shipping costs: EUR 150.-

Duration: 5 to 10 work days

Africa:

Shipping: EUR 150.-

Duration: 15 to 20 work days

North America:

Shipping costs: EUR 150.-

Duration: 10 to 15 work days

South & Central America:

Shipping costs: EUR 180.-

Duration: 15 to 20 work days

Asia:

Shipping costs: EUR 180.-

Duration: 15 to 20 work days

Australia, New-Zealand, and Indonesia:

Shipping costs: EUR 200.-

Duration: 15 to 20 work days

Ordering info:

iStillMessage@gmail.com

iStill prices

A big "Konnichi Wa!" to our viewers from Japan!

And some more news as well. On prices.

iStill 50 (automated design and programs):

EUR 1,995.-

iStill 50 Base (manual needle valve operation):

EUR 1,295.- (see picture)

Ordering info:

iStillMessage@gmail.com

iStill 50: final test results are in!

Okay a verdict on the iStill and after that: a decision. But first things first. How did the tests turn out? In a summarized form: good. Now, let's zoom in on the details. I will try to be as extensive as I can, so it will be a long read. Long, but interesting, I think.

By the way, it is great to see that we now even have people from Saudie-Arabia and Estonia following this Blog. Personally I am very curious as to how distilling is done in Saudie-Arabia. Anyone out there who wishes to share?

Back to the iStill now!

On packing and shipping:

The distiller comes in two boxes. One holds the column, the other holds the boiler and additional parts. Both are very well packed: protected against rain and rough treatment. It surpassed my expectations. Packed like this, it will surely survive a trip to anywhere on the globe. Btw, shipments outside Western-Europe will be in three smaller boxes.

Setting up the still:

Setting the still up takes some time. About 2 1/2 hours. Two people can do the job easily. And the 2 1/2 hour is taking it leasurely. You have to install the heating and management system to the boiler first. Then you mount the column, cooler and filter, and the column cooler. Connecting the thermometers etc. is easy because plugs have designated colours. All in all, setting this baby up didn't cause any problems. The explanations and build instructions are clear and you have to be a complete moron to assemble it wrongly. I know, because building wise, I am a moron. And even I succeeded in putting it together!

Build quality:

This is one major plus. The rig is build to last. Very strong, with an eye for detail. This is the best build quality I have ever seen on a distilling device. "Over engineered" is what comes to mind. "High tech" is another expression that does justice to its appearance. There is nothing amateuristic about the still. It is build to satisfy professional users.

Build structure:

It is set up as a fractionating still and has all the additions to make it live up to its expectations and more. The SPP does a great job at getting a low HETP, the needle valve is able to maintain azeotropic take-off at all times, cooling is more than sufficient, and so on.

My personal favorite? The hose connection just above the packing; it makes for very easy cleaning.

The selonoid valves work very well in letting cooling water in, in dividging various fractions.

The filter takes a first 1 liter of booz from you, but seems to work flawlessly after that, even filtering 95%+ down to neutral.

Automation:

That's the real trick this still has up its sleeves: the automated controls. Heat up at 4,000 watts,  cooling water automatically tunes in, lower energy input when boiling, automated stabilization, automated fores removal, etc, etc.

Safeguards against cooling problems and column flooding, together with distilling electrically, make its operation fool proof.

Programming:

The programming allows you to select various programs and parameters. You can use the iStill as a potstill or a water distiller. Or you can set her up for fractionating at azeotropic temperatures. In that case you can choose for a filtered or non filtered product.

Parameters to dial in are the column stabilization time (23 minutes will do the job), fores withdrawel (78.5 degrees is a good setting), end temperature of collection (98.5 degrees at the bottom of the column seems like a good compromise for take off speeds), tolerance of draw off temperatures related to azeotropic boiling temperature (0.3 degrees gives you a better collection rate and a slightly higher ABV than 0.2 or 0.1 degrees), etc.

Is there enough for the professional distiller to play with? Yes. Can it be ran fool proof by somebody just starting with the noble art of distilling? Yes, it can do that too.

Heads can be drawn off together with fores, if a higher temperature setting is choosen for fores removal. I personally do it differently. I let the column heat up, then collect the fores and throw them out. Now a 30 minutes stabilization program starts. You see the temps drop for 22 to 23 minutes, which means lower boiling point molecules are well stacked. The first "batch" the iStill draws off are well concentrated heads. Next "take" will probably be clean already. You can just continue collecting hearts or push "stop", push "menu", push "stabilization time" and choose "10 minutes". Push "start" again, and the rig will draw off some more fores (into the heads container for redistillation) and stabilize for 10 minutes before true hearts will be collected. Reading it takes longer than dialing it in.

If you run the rig too hot, it automatically shuts down. It does not flood, but has a pressure measurement device to make 200% sure. Auto shut down, if such a situation were to occur.

Potstill:

Even as a potstil,l it will equalize. This allows you to take out fores, or fores and heads in a very compact way, leaving you with a better quality middle cut. In potstill mode the iStill pisses out about 3 liters per hour. By dialing in starting temps and end of program temperature, you can automate your potstill runs with perfect cuts for heads, hearts and tails. You can also just use various smaller collection vessels for receiving and blending. Whatever runs your engine.

Fractionating still:

In this mode, it delivers 3 liters per hour when charged with 35% to 40% low wines. The collection rate of (say) a turbo wash of between 20% and 10% will be around 2.5 liters per hour. If the ABV in the boiler is between 10% and 5%, she still will give 1.5 liters of azeotropic alcohol per hour. When boiler charge is under 5%, output slows to about 0.8 liter per  hour.

Heads and fores are well compressed. I calculated these fractions to be 6% of total azeotropic collectable, which is better than any other device I ever read or heared about. Equalization and stacking of lower boiling point alcohols takes 22 to 23 minutes, which is very fast.

The rig heats boiler contents up to a boil in about 50 minutes. Heating up the column and packing takes another 25 minutes.

It can take a neutral wash and turn it into a vodka by potstill mode or by means of the fractionating programs. Filtering is not needed. It can make a whiskey or brandy in potstill mode. It can turn a taste rich wash (for whiskey for example) into a vodka with character by using the fractionating programs. If you want to turn it into a neutral, choose the carbon filtration option. Tests I took earlier this week showed that the rig is perfectly set up to make a Pure Whiskey: a whiskey made by fractionating a taste rich wash at 96% with added feints. All the taste is there, all the hangovers are gone.

Since I am not much of a rum kinda guy, I didn't attempt to make a rum with the iStill. But with the potstill function for sure you can. I expect the fractionating program will give a light rum. But with added dunder and/or feints, a heavy rum can be made distilling at 96%, I expect. Just as in making a Pure Whiskey.

Apart from the build quality and the automation and its performances ... do I like the still? Yes, I do! At first I was affraid the automation might take some of the fun away, but it doesn't. If anything, the automation adds a dimension.

I will try to explain it via a metaphore.

"Old school" stilling is like driving one of those old style sports cars. Say a 1980's Porsche 911. They are fast and entertaining, but good at one thing only and tiring after some time. The last generation of sports cars - say the newest model Porsche 911 - can be tuned in to do different things. You can choose sports settings and go faster then ever before. Or you can select a more comfortable damper setting and cruise home after a long day at the office. Do you want to shift gears? Please go ahead and do so! Do you want the car to do it for you? No problem. More steering feel? Just dial in the setting of your choice ...

My verdict:

This is a great and versatile rig that exceeded my expectations.

My decision:

We will bring this (and more!) to the international market place. More information will follow on short notice!

Making Pure Whiskey

The poll outcomes show that about 80% of you think that making a whiskey with a rig like this, in full 96% attack mode, is not possible.

But I can now tell you it is.

The trick? How to do it? Ian Smiley's book tells about it and tests now show that, with an LM rig, it can be done. The trick is collecting heads & tails from a previous run. Ad those heads & tails to a next batch you want to distill. This way you increase the total amounts of heads & tails with a factor 2.

On run 2, proceed as normal. Heat up, stabilize, draw off heads, collect hearts, collect tails. Because the amount of heads & tails are doubled, they can be compressed much tighter (with less ethanol and water in the heads and tails solution). The tighter compression of both heads and tails makes that taste components associated with those fractions bleed into your hearts.

Bottom line: you will end up with a very tasty whiskey that hardly needs ageing. Actually, it does not even need wood. It is good as is. And some more good news: since it is a fractionated, pure whiskey, with careful cuts taken, you can drink it without getting a hangover. The taste of whiskey combined with the purity of vodka.

Test 1: update

First of all a warm welcome to our guests from Ireland and Viet Nam. Thanks for joining the iStill Blog! Ireland ... Poitín. Viet Nam ... dunno actually. What are you guys making/drinking over there?

On today:

Some steep learning curves happening here. Me, getting to know how an automated design works. The iStill 50, tuning in and stepping up its performance.

No, I didn't flood the column. I was wrong. The still actually has a function to detect potential flooding and counter acts if such a situation was to ocure. No, what I encountered, that is just how the iStill works! Contrary to hand controlled LM, it doesn't go slowly at a continuous pace. Instead, it equalizes the column, and draws off product at a pretty fast rate.

Depending on what setting you choose (like "stay within 0.1 degree of azeotropic boiling point"), it will continue to draw off until it cannot stay within the set parameters. Then it stops collecting, starts equalizing, and another collection phase takes place.

Contrary to hand operated LM's or VM's, it sorta runs and rests, runs and rests. That was my learning point.

Funny thing is that the iStill is learning too. On the first run, it collected like 0.1 liters before shut down. It then decided to open the needle valve much less for the second "batch".  I guess it has some kind of algorithm that drives it to look for a maximum amount take-0ff within the set parameters (for instance "stay within 0.1 degree of azeo boiling point"). The second stabilization got me 0.2 liters. And right now it is throwing out like 0.6 to 0.7 liters in one time. From a boiler that is slowly depleted in alcohol. Impressive.

So, did I achieve my goal of cleaning up that undrinkable vodka? Yes I did. It is a vodka, not a neutral, but the hotness has gone and so has most of the taste. Good job!

New plans for tomorow? Yes! Let's see if we can use the iStill to make a whiskey. I am not talking about using the potstill function, or about taking packing out. I want to use her as is. In full 96% attack mode. So what do you think? Can we make a whiskey like that?

[polldaddy poll=7052055]

New feature on the iStill 50?

Very interesting news, guys! We did some thinking on how to bring automation one step further still. Heating up, stabilizing, making cuts ...

But in the end you do all that to get a sip of that darn fine drink you produced, right? Well, for when she will be launched, we added this great extra feature. You can now sip fresh from the still ... without having to get out of your chair.

The secret? Levitation. Right, levitation! We will be adding a radiowave guided glass that automatically travels from the still to you and back. Pictures to prove it? Yes, look, here is a glass autofilling itself. Everything to make you comfortable.

Oh, and a warm welcome to the visitors from Honduras and Ukraine! Glad you joined!

Test 1: update

The boiler was not full enough with those 24 liters. I could not see any liquid in the sight glass, so I decided to put in 4 liters of that bad tasting, heads ridden vodka. And an additional 6 liters of water.

That will ask for a new calculation. But first I will let her do her work.

Heating up started at 11h00!

Test 1: goals

Let the fun begin! I just checked the new hoses I bought and everything seems to work. I can't get water thru the system though, now that it is switched off. I guess the water valve is closed when it doesn't work. Makes sense.

Okay, so what's the goal going to be? Well, originially I was planning to make a neutral out of a turbo. But the turbo isn't done yet. So it was fastforward to plan B. Fractionate my Maillardized rye/wheat UJ. I asked you to choose a setting: with or without carbon filtration? A little over 70% choose to run the program without filtration, so that's what it is going to be. But what do we want? And what's to expect?

I have like a little over 24 liters of this wash. It is about 10% strong. So total alcohol by volume at 100% should be close to 2.4 liters. At 95% that's 2.1 liters. Now that's a first number we can dial in to: an expected total return of about 2.5 liters of azeotrope. I could be mistaken. Not really sure about wash percetage. let's find out. I normally don't bother, because the striprun would tell me. Collect 1/3rd at 30%? Wash abv would have been 10%. Now I don't strip.

But what about taste? Have I something to compare it with? Yes I do. The stripped and CM fractionated vodka I made with generation III of this recipe. Was it drinkable? No. Why? I suspect the Maillard reaction is over the top. It gives so much taste that a strip run and fractionating run would not take it out. Hot. Not nice. To be perfectly honest with you guys, I may have switched to hearts collection a bit too soon. Some heads present in this non-successful vodka of mine.

What goals to set? Easy. Can it produce a better spirit than my previous run tastewise? What do I expect? I expect the better control - even though this wash isn't going to be stripped first - will give me a cleaner result. But my experience with this rye bread recipe wash is such, that I expect it to make what I call an Eau de Vie out of it. Not a vodka. And surely not a neutral.

For me, a neutral is about not taste at all. Nice to mix other stuff in, but not nice to drink. A vodka has some residual graininess left in taste and mouthfeel. A whiskey is full flavour grain taste. What I call "Eau de  Vie" is more or less in between whiskey and vodka. A heavy vodka or a very light whiskey. If it gets me to that Eau de Vie sweet spot with this wash recipe, I will be very happy.

Some more numbers to compare. On my CM rig, I would take like 3% a fores, 17% as heads and some 55 to 58% as hearts. So my total hearts collection on this recipe would be around 2.8 liter. Fores & heads would sum up to 0.5 liters. Tails I don't collect on my fractionating run. Now I will try to do that.

This is quite the challenge we set here. Okay of to the still it is. Let's see if we can get some numbers and first impressions!

Plans for tomorrow

So I wanted to do a run on a turbo. With purifier on. Just to see how she runs.

But ... the turbo ain't ready yet. Turbo? Not what it used to be ...

So what to do now? I plan on fractionating da sh*te out of a fourth generation sorta UJ. Only not based on corn. It is a wheat/rye hybrid. With the rye bit being Maillardized rye bread. Lots of taste. Maybe too much. I put part of it thru my old school CM fractionating rig. Gave me a hot tasting vodka. That darn rye bread just gives off too much taste!

How to proceed from here? I can try to give the new rig a turn. And see if she can turn it into a vodka better than my old CM rig could.  But how? By choosing the program with carbon filtration? Or by choosing the distillation program without filtering? Both will take heads & tails equally. But carbon filtering will/might have an effect.

What do you want? Let me know, and the approach that gets most votes ... that's what I will do.

[polldaddy poll=7047021]

Assembling the unit ...

... takes about 2 hours and a half. But we took it leasurely.

Easy to put together? Yes, fool proof, because bolts are in pre-set places and connectors have unique colours.

Can it be done alone? Yes, but with two it is easier.

Is it well build, sturdy, purdy? Yes it is. My dad - former head or jet engine revisions at KLM/Dutch Airlines - joined in and was impressed. He is not a man that's easily impressed, because he can do most things himself. And most of the time he can do it better.

Some pictures:

      

From left to right and top to bottom:

- Selenoid valves "deciding' between fores/heads and hearts and tails.

- Various parts

- iStill 50 under construction

- Funny guy showing of the iStill

- Just find the right color ...

- Water management system

- Ready!

And what do you do when it is ready? You plug it in, wait for it to start up and wish you a great day. And then you can do some tests. Testing the heating, the cooling, the selenoid valves, the step motor, the needle valve, etc.

Tomorow I will get some more hoses, to connect to the water management system. And then ... a first run. I will keep you all posted! Hope my turbo wash fermentation keeps up with the speed of our operation.

Unpacking the column

How is the column packed? Not talking SPP here, but how has it been prepared for transportation? Or as a member of a homedistilling site put it: "will it survive a trip the USA?"

The outer skin of this beast from Poland is made of plastic. The material garbage bags are made of. To keep it water tight, I guess. Around three layers are wrapped around a carboard cilinder, holding the column.

Stop! Not the whole story! The actual column sits in the cardboard cilinder, but is wrapped in ... bubbles? There must be a better English word for that. Again about two to three wraps.

Hey? What is this? It looks like I didn't get a still, but rather ... the thinner brother of ... R2D2?

Okay, some more unveiling to do. I'll be back. My thinking: the column is packed in a way that it could be shipped around the world without any problem. Three layers of plastic, than a cardboard cilinder, than two layers of bubbles. And the column is wrapped in some tight plastic foil after that.

Here too I had to delete the pictures. Sorry guys! I will try to make up with pictures in a later post. You will get a your tastings of SS porn!

The packages have arrived!

So here they are. Two packages from Poland. One has the column inside and maybe the SPP too. The other has the boiler and other stuff in. The column package weights around 7.5 to 8 kilo's, the big square box is around 21 kilo's. In total just under 30 kilo's, I would guess.

First impressions are that is it neatly packed. Both protected from shocks as well as rain. So I have some other stuff to do, but as soon as that is done, I will open the package up to get a better insight.

Something went wrong when I took pictures of the packages. So I had to delete them. One cilinder for the already packed column. Another one with boiler and apendages.

Just to wetten the apetite ...

A picture of the iStill 50. About to arive. About to be assembled. About to be tested. Daily updates on this Blog. Become a follower to make sure you don't miss out on any of the goodies! I hope the picture is visible now ...

I've got wood!

And the missus ain't home, so who else to share it with but you? Now hold on tight. Here is some more information. On what it is and on what it costs.

What it is? It's blocks made out of American white oak. Not just any American white oak, but the white oak used by Jack Daniel's to make his whiskey in. After these barrels are used, they are usually sold to other distilleries. Or they are turned into furniture. And some are chopped up into chips or blocks. Why? Well, mostly because people want to throw them on the BBQ. To impart some of the nice wood and whiskey flavour into the meat they are grilling. But ... they are a great way to age whiskey too, if you find a 225 liter barrel a bit too big.

The advantage of this wood (aproximately 5 x 5 centimeters) is that American white oak is low on tanines and has a relatively open structure. And much of the tanines present originally ... well, they got into Jack's whiskey. They won't be bothering yours.

The blocks can be used as is. Like 20% of the total volume of the drink you want to age or wood. So if you want to age 10 liters, you need 1 liter of these blocks. For how long? Decide by colour and taste, but 5 weeks is a good estimate to start with. At what abv? About 60% if you want to go for a more complex whiskey. Closer to 50% if you are looking for that sweet vanilla touch.

You can also decide to toast the wood. Light, medium, medium plus, heavy. Whatever makes your clock tick. In general, toasting makes for a more complex whiskey. But you have to be careful not to over oak. Use around 6 to 8 grams per liter.

So that's the info on what it is, but what does it cost? I just struck a deal with a company importing JD barrels and cutting them up themselves. And I think it is a good deal. At least for those not living in the States and not having easy access to American white oak.

A 10 kilo container costs EUR 69,95. As an introduction offer from the supplier: the first 5 containers will go for EUR 64,95. Container? Yes, it is packed in a container. That way the whiskey taste and aroma stay in. For whomever wants to know ... it is a plastic container.

Shipping in the Netherlands will be free. Shipping to other countries will bring additional costs. I will try to put up a general post on costs of shipping to other countries later. And for my friends outside of the Euro Zone: the website and webshop will have a currency converter for ease of use.

How to order, as long as the website/webshop is not in place? Easy, just send a message to istillmessage@gmail.com. Don't forget the delivery address!

The start of an interesting journey!

Hi guys and girls out there! I am very excited about all this! Starting a Blog about my adventures in distilling technology. I will try to make an update every few days. Well, if I have something to report, that is.

"Telling about distilling? Isn't that like ... illigal, maybe?" you might want to ask. But it isn't. I mean distilling is only legal with the right paper work. Government approval, taxation administration, that kinda stuff ... At least, that's how it works in most countries. But talking about distilling, sharing opinions, offering parts to designated distilleries that's all perfectly legal.

So let's get started! Where? At the beginning. Do you know how I became interested in distilling? On holidays in Hungary. A country where homedistilling is legalized, by the way. I drank some homemade Hungarian brandy (called Pálinka). And sometimes I drank a bit more than just a bit. At one place the homemade stuff was great, at another family it was as if I was drinking terpentine. Or worse.

Luckily a friend of mine had a solution for bad tasting brandy. He would just poor some honey in, mix it,  and make even the badest drink taste quite acceptable. I wanted to know more, went to the internet, typed something like "making distilled spirits taste good" in Google, and before I knew it, I was reading about "making distilled spirits yourself". Remember, we are talking Hungary here, where homedistilling is allowed.

Now at first nothing much made any sense. But I got lucky again. My wife's uncle used to be the master distiller of a big likker company. Retired now, but still making his own. Right, the good stuff. So I asked him, and he answered me, and my learning curve went up.

Learning more about distilling has been my passion ever since. And now I want to take that passion one step furter and use my knowledge and the contacts I have made all around the world to help make a small difference. My little contribution or payback for all who shared their knowledge with me. If I succeed, that is.

How? By talking about distilling and by making products available for pro distillers who want only the best. By means of a website / webshop that will be launched in just a few weeks time. Products that I hope will take the noble art of distilling a step further in terms of quality or at least in ease of use. For distilling, I quickly learned, is not easy. It is a labour intensive craft, where the biggest challenge is not just to get results, but to get repeatable results.

A distiller that wants to make a good drink, wants to be able to make it over and over again. Now that's a challenge. How I want to help distillers to address that challenge? By providing them with the best information and products available on the market place. And if we can't find what you are looking for? Well, then we will develop and test it ourselves.

So, do you want to join me on this voyage? I can't guarantee success. Hey, we might even end up ship-wrecked. But it will be an interesting voyage, that I can promise you!